Zvi Hermann Schapira ( he, צבי הרמן שפירא; 1840-1898), or Hermann Hirsch Schapira, was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

, mathematician at the University of Heidelberg, and Zionist. He was the first to suggest founding a

Jewish National Fund Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...

for the purchase of land in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

Biography

Zvi Hermann Schapira was born in a small Lithuanian town, Erswilken, not far from the larger town of Tauragė,Jewish Encyclopedia part of the Russian Empire, but also close to the Prussian border. After studying for the rabbinate, Schapira was first appointed rabbi at age twenty-four, but then decided to dedicate his life to the secular sciences. He first moved to

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

, and in 1868 to Berlin, where he enrolled for three years at the . Schapira returned to Odessa, where he worked as a merchant for the next five years. In 1878 he switched back to scientific studies, spending the next four years in the German university town of Heidelberg where he especially concentrated on mathematics and physics. In 1880, he applied for a PhD examination, with mathematics as a main subject and mechanics and

Hebrew Language and Literature Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

as secondary subjects. That same year, with Lazarus Fuchs as thesis advisor, he earned his doctorate with the dissertation ''Lineare homogene Cofunktionen'', " Linear

homogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

cofunctions". In 1883 he established himself as ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

'' in mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, becoming assistant professor in 1887. Schapira published his mathematical work in a number of specialised journals. Throughout his life, Schapira remained a student of

Hebrew literature Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was pro ...

, contributing an edition of the ''

Mishnat ha-Middot The Mishnat ha-Middot ( he, מִשְׁנַת הַמִּדּוֹת, 'Treatise of Measures') is the earliest known Hebrew treatise on geometry, composed of 49 ''mishnayot'' in six chapters. Scholars have dated the work to either the Mishnaic period ...

'' (1880) based on a Munich manuscript. He also wrote for the Hebrew periodicals '' Ha-Meliẓ'', '' Ha-Ẓefirah'', and ''Mi-Mizraḥ umi-Ma'arab''. In the aftermath of the Russian pogroms of 1881, Schapira lent his support to the proto-Zionist Hibbat Zion movement.Edelheit, Hershel
''History Of Zionism: A Handbook And Dictionary''
/ref> In 1884, Schapira proposed the establishment of an organization for the acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael and came up with the idea of the "Blue Box" as means of collecting money. He presented proposal for the creation of a Jewish national fund at the First Zionist Congress of 1897, where he supported the Basel program, proving to be an enthusiastic Zionist from the very beginning of the movement. Although the

(JNF) came into being only in 1901, at the Fifth Congress, after Shapira's death, he is still considered to be the "father" of the JNF. Also at the 1897 congress, Shapira brought up the idea of founding a Hebrew university in Jerusalem.''Hebrew University Opens''
Center for Israel Education, accessed 15 February 2021 During a Zionist lecture tour he contracted pneumonia in Cologne, and died there on 8 May 1898.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schapira, Zvi Hermann Jews from the Russian Empire Mathematicians from the Russian Empire Zionists from the Russian Empire Expatriates from the Russian Empire in Germany 1840 births 1898 deaths Hovevei Zion Forerunners of Zionism People from Tauragė County Heidelberg University faculty Deaths from pneumonia in Germany Odesa Jews 19th-century mathematicians from the Russian Empire

Biography

References

Further reading

External links